1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet printer, and particularly relates to an inkjet printer in which it is unnecessary to move an inkjet head to cover the nozzle surface thereof with a sealing member, so that the printing accuracy can be improved, while the moving path of the sealing member is set under the inkjet head so that ink can be prevented from adhering to the inkjet head.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an inkjet printer, nozzles for ejecting ink are exposed to the air. Accordingly, there is a fear that ink in the nozzles is evaporated to clog the nozzles when ink ejection is not performed. Therefore, the nozzle surface of the inkjet head is generally capped (covered) with a cap member (sealing member) to prevent the ink from being evaporated when the ink ejection operation is suspended for a long time.
The cap member is disposed out of a printing area. The capping of the nozzle surface is carried out as follows. The inkjet head is moved horizontally from a printing position to a retraction position, that is, to the position where the cap member is disposed. However, when the inkjet head is formed as a line head, the cap member is made large in size because the head is made long. Thus, there is a problem that the retraction space is also expanded so that the inkjet printer as a whole is made large in size.
Therefore, various techniques for reducing the retraction space to thereby miniaturize an inkjet printer have been proposed. For example, JP-A-2000-343716 (e.g., paragraph 0033 and FIG. 4) discloses a technique for miniaturizing an inkjet printer. JP-A-2000-343716 includes a chain mechanism provided circumferentially to surround a head base, a plurality of maintenance members disposed around the whole circumference of the chain mechanism, and gap portions provided among head chips. The maintenance members are moved alternately via the positions (capping positions) opposed to the head chips and via the gap portions (retraction positions), respectively.